Grilled Pizzas are Genius

Grilled pizza. I kept reading about it and ignoring it.

Silly me.

My family kept bugging me to make homemade pizza for dinner, but I was not too interested in the blazing hot oven during the summer.

I finally looked at my hubby and said, “Fine. But we’re grilling them.” He gave me a funny look like I’d gone a bit mental, but agreed.

It might be hard to convince me to ever go back to the oven now. Grilled pizzas are so much easier! So easy in fact, that we want to make them the next time we entertain friends or family.

The only “disaster” of the experience was me sending in my son to “punch the dough” while I continued my yard work. For some odd reason, he ignored the bowl with the dough and punched the bowl of flour I had left out instead. Yep, that was a bit of a mess…that he cleaned up. I still can’t quite figure out what he was thinking!

As with my oven pizzas, the toppings and flavor possibilities are as endless as your imagination can take you.

This dough recipe makes six smallish pizzas (plenty for our family of five). I made two each of three variations.

Basic pepperoni: always a favorite for all of us. Layer Angie’s Pizza Sauce, a couple handfuls of grated mozzarella, sliced pepperoni and slivered garlic.

Tomato basil: best with fresh from the garden ingredients. Layer Angie’s Pizza Sauce, a handful of shredded mozzarella, slivered fresh basil, slivered fresh garlic, sliced cherry tomatoes and a handful of grated Parmesan.

I also tried a mozzarella, onion and rosemary combination, but it wasn’t quite right. Stay tuned on that one.

The dough recipe and method is courtesy of a Sunset Magazine article. I swapped half of the flour for whole wheat and it was soft and wonderful.

I especially love the ease of this dough recipe and taking advantage of the dough hook in my stand up mixer. I’d never actually used it before and it was wonderful to just walk away while it worked its magic.

Tip: be sure to assemble all of your toppings before you start the grill.

Ingredients List

• 1 1/2 cups warm, room temperature water
• 1 package (2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Method

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir yeast into 1 1/2 cups warm water (100° to 110°). Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup oil, the flour, and salt. Mix with dough hook on low speed to blend, then mix on medium speed until dough is very smooth and stretchy, 8 to 10 minutes.

Cover dough and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough (probably shouldn’t let your 14 year old do this…LOL)  and let rise again until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.

Prepare your chosen pizza toppings and set aside.

Turn dough out onto a work surface and cut into six equal portions.

For each pizza, lay a sheet of parchment on work surface and spray or rub with 1 tsp oil.

Using well-oiled hands, put each dough portion on a parchment sheet. Flatten dough portions, then pat into 9- to 10-in. rounds.

Let dough stand until puffy, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat grill for medium heat.

Flip a round of dough onto grill, dough side down. Peel off parchment. Put 1 or 2 more dough rounds on grill (I could only fit 2).

Cook, covered, until dough has puffed and grill marks appear underneath, about 3 minutes. Transfer rounds, grilled side up, to baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. (Grilled rounds can stand at room temperature up to 2 hours though we just topped them and got right to cooking).

Arrange your choice of pizza toppings on grilled sides of dough. With a wide spatula, return pizzas, 2 or 3 at a time, to grill and cook, covered, until cheese is melted and dough is browned and crisp underneath, 6-8 minutes.

Make ahead: Complete dough through step 1, then chill, covered, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days (dough will double in size, and flavor will develop as it stands).